What’s on your Mind – Kiphire!! By Abhishek Singh

By Abhishek Singh

Every morning as I switch on my phone, I have Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook staring at me with the question – What’s on your mind!! As we bid good bye to 2017 and heralded 2018 – when most of my friends and family wished a Happy New Year for me and my family – my mind was more occupied with Kiphire – one of the remotest districts in the extreme North East of India. Kiphire is around 2500 kms from New Delhi and it takes almost 18 hours to reach the district from Delhi with the fastest mode of transport – a combination of a 4.5 hour flight to Dimapur and another 13.5 hours of tiring road journey on the hill roads.

Towards the end of 2017, I got a call from the young Deputy Commissioner of Kiphire with the news that his district has been identified as one of the most backward 115 districts of the country which have been chosen for a special focus by the Prime Minister for Transforming India. He also informed me that he has been invited to participate in a Conference in New Delhi on 4th and 5th January where the District Collectors (Deputy Commissioners) of the 115 most backward districts will be making presentations before a panel chaired by none other than our Prime Minister. He asked for my suggestions on the theme that he should chose for Kiphire – from amongst Education, Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Water Resources, Financial Inclusion, Skill development and Basic Infrastructure. We discussed the various development indicators for the district and the Deputy Commissioner was preparing for his big Day with the PM. However, this was in the last week of 2017.

Come 2018 and a different kind of crisis awaited the DC and the district of Kiphire. A potentially explosive law and order situation over nomenclature of a village and we had a situation where the focus shifted from development to maintenance of basic law and order. Social Media these days is a willing medium to be misused for spreading all kinds of rumours that can disrupt normal life. So a decision had to be taken – much to the chagrin to champions of free speech – to restrict Internet services in the district. Meetings were held with all stakeholders to avoid any loss to life and property. With great effort, the situation has been brought to control and normalcy prevails as of now. But at what cost? The Deputy Commissioner could not attend the Conference which was addressed by Hon’ble Prime Minister. The Prime Minister exhorted the young District Collectors – referred to them as Change Agents – who can together transform the Backward Districts to be Aspirational Districts.

Identifying the aspirations of the people of these districts and taking steps to meet those aspirations can help not only transform these districts but the entire State. The Deputy Commissioners – the Change Agents – who have the opportunity to work in these Aspirational Districts are fortunate to get an opportunity to do something meaningful – that can bring about real change. The Prime Minister called upon the young officers to strive hard to change the negative psyche and mindset of pessimism into that of optimism in these districts.

Given this context, we need to go beyond the dispute and the acrimony of the past week – look for ways and means to resolve our differences and work together – hand in hand – to help improve the development indicators of Kiphire. The literacy rate of the district is 69.54% against 79.55% for the State. The Sex Ratio of the District – 956 is better than that of the State – 931. But the sex ratio of children below the age of 6 is only 948 and that’s a trend that needs to be reversed. Poor infrastructure facilities in the districts results in a situation where we don’t have sufficient teachers in schools and colleges, doctors in hospitals are missing and people suffer as a result. Bad roads and lack of proper infrastructure is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the district. Coverage of Banks is limited and Financial Inclusion is a major challenge. With the relatively young population, Skill Development can be a major focus area to help the youth find jobs.

The Prime Minister has given a target of 3 months to work out a plan and move ahead – this will be challenging and what we need is to get all likeminded people – specially the youth – who are aspirational to come forward and give suggestions that can help transform Kiphire. If we can do this, there is an opportunity to make Kiphire the role model for the Nation. And this would ensure that Kiphire will be on the minds of people across the country, next year – for a totally different reason. Lets do it.

Abhishek Singh is an IAS officer belonging to Nagaland cadre and he is currently Home Commissioner, Government of Nagaland. The above article was first published under the blog ‘Abhishek Singh’s Musings’—Random thoughts on life and work!! The views expressed are personal.